Hemodialysis is available for patients who have health issues, such as kidney failure. In a hemodialysis procedure, blood is drawn from a patient, filtered to remove substances such as salts or wastes, and then returned to the patient. A kidney failure patient may be required to follow a hemodialysis treatment protocol for months or years. Some patients receive treatment using a hemodialysis catheter that is inserted into the vasculature and periodically used according to a treatment regimen.
Indwelling catheters such as hemodialysis catheters are sometimes employed for long-term access to internal areas of a patient, such as several weeks or even several months. For example, a hemodialysis catheter may be left in place for three to six months or longer while an arteriovenous (AV) graft or arteriovenous fistula matures. When a catheter is left in place long term, i.e. for weeks or months, problems may arise with the patency of the catheter. For example, hemodialysis catheters are prone to occlusion from fibrin sheath and thrombus formation. When this happens, complex interventional treatments can be required, ranging from flushing of the lumen with thrombolytic agents to fibrin sheath stripping or catheter removal and reinsertion of another catheter. These treatments can be invasive or undesirable for the patient, and expensive for the health care system. There is therefore a need to maintain patency of hemodialysis catheters to reduce the complex interventional treatments.